Or perhaps that should be ‘the design newsletters I am STILL subscribed to and continue to make time for when they arrive in my inbox’.
Creative Boom
The best looking newsletter in my inbox is Creative Boom and I won’t lie, I get a little endorphin hit when I open it. Creative Boom is a fantastic all rounder, giving insight and inspiration across web, illustration, typography, social, print, and more. I end up with a lot of tabs open for future reading.
P.S. The eyes following your cursor movement on their website are a delight.
It’s Nice That
Mainly design news across advertising, print and product, as well as broad pieces taking in conceptual art and global icons. The newsletter itself is a great modern example of a digest email which I enjoy visually, and there’s always a good design meme included too!
Eye on Design
Spanning fashion to typography, Eye on Design is the American Institute of Graphic Arts’ newsletter which highlights the work of its members across a wide variety of creative media. The newsletter itself is a beautiful example of what can be achieved despite the limits of email technology. Two things to look out for, 1) is the blinking eye on their newsletter and 2) is a surprise, you’ll need to open a new tab for their website and leave it for a while to find out!
Medium Daily Digest
Not a design newsletter per se, but considering I mainly follow design accounts like UX Collective and read design articles on Medium, this is a great source for discovering tips and new conversations around design.
UX Collective
I also subscribe directly to the UX Collective newsletter where I get a weekly digest of their best articles. As you might expect, their content is mostly centred around users and how to create experiences that best serve the intended communities. It’s also a great resource for tools and guides.
Muzli
Another one on Medium, Muzli features weekly inspiration from the people behind InVision. I always try to find time to look at the Weekly Design Inspiration which takes in the latest trends across apps, web, illustration and branding.
UI Adrian
An Instagram creator that has found his way into my inbox, UI Adrian is a great resource for new and improver designers alike. I enjoy his content as it’s presented in a very clear way and, to be honest, I like that it reinforces my existing knowledge and gives me reassurance in my way of doing things.
Visual Capitalist
If you like data and infographics, you’ll love Visual Capitalist. The quality of the design makes abstract concepts and huge volumes of data simple to comprehend – which is of course the main purpose of design. You’ll be both inspired and informed.
DesignTAXI
Scientific innovation, tech news, packaging, fine art, advertising, book recommendations and lots more. DesignTAXI spreads the breadth of the design world and helps keep me informed outside my web design bubble.
SustainableWWW
Tips and tricks on how to make the internet more sustainable through design. As designers, we need to take steps to create a more sustainable web from the ground up. SustainableWWW is a great resource for small changes we can make everyday to optimise the sites we design and build.
Curiously Green/Oxymoron
I’m popping these two newsletters together as they both come from the mind of Tom Greenwood – who literally wrote the book on sustainable web design. Curiously Green is the newsletter of Wholegrain Digital, an ethically-focused, green digital agency who provide great resources for those of us still finding our path on our green web journey. Oxymoron is Tom’s personal newsletter which has a wider focus on sustainability in business.
The Brand Identity
The Brand Identity showcases all things branding, from visual identities that subvert the expected to profiles of up and coming designers. Each edition includes examples across their Index, Directory and Shop – you’ll catch me swooning over the typography books.
Dezeen
Dezeen is an architecture and interiors magazine. At first you may not think this is relevant to the web but I see value in staying on top of other design trends, and both disciplines are concerned with form and function. To design a beautiful building there are many structural constraints that must first be considered in order to create something that serves a purpose and is enjoyable to use – the same is true for websites.
Creative Review
A mix of creative think pieces, opinion and projects, The CR Newsletter is a great resource. Be warned that many of the articles are behind a paywall but they do show a padlock icon to avoid disappointment.
CodePen Spark
My coding skills are pretty limited but I think it’s vital to be aware of the possibilities and pass developers real-world examples of how I envision the UI behaving. CodePen lets me do this, it’s a front-end developer community which allows users to write code directly in the browser and share what they’ve made. Their newsletter shares the best of the community’s creations, which often includes pure CSS illustrations, SVG animations and inspiring motion and effects. As a user I can pin these ‘pens’ to collections, so if I see something cool I can come back to it later.
Are there any other design newsletters you think I should be subscribing to? Let me know or send us a DM over on Instagram.
